Boy quarreled with mom prior to her gun death

BIG PRAIRIE, Ohio - A 10-year-old boy suspected in his mother's shooting death argued with her beforehand about whether to carry firewood into their home, his uncle said Tuesday.

The boy has been charged with murder as a juvenile and entered the equivalent of a not-guilty plea in court. His mother, Deborah McVay, 46, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head Sunday night in Big Prairie, a town in central Ohio.

McVay's brother, Tony Miller, said his nephew argued with his mother just before she died because he didn't want to carry in the firewood.

Four weapons were found in the boy's bedroom after the shooting, said Nathan Fritz, Holmes County sheriff's chief deputy. Paramedics found McVay lying facedown on her living-room floor. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities went to the house after a neighbor called a sheriff's dispatcher. The neighbor said the boy came to her home to report the emergency. On a recording of the call, a voice in the background says, "I shot my mom. I shot her with a gun."

McVay had separated from her husband, Mike McVay, two weeks ago, Miller said.

The guns found in the boy's room once belonged to his grandfather, but they were given to the boy by his father, Miller said.